There was an interesting interview on NPR last night with John Waters. An article he wrote for the Huffington Post on Leslie Van Houten.

Yes, the Manson Girl.

I know the La Bianca kids don’t have a mother around anymore partly because of my friend Leslie. No matter how patient Leslie or her supporters are, we know this terrible fact will never change. But when, if ever, will there have been enough punishment?

Listening to John Waters discuss the case of Leslie Van Houten set of two similar trains of thought.

First, which was brought up by John Waters, is: would she have been released on parole years ago if she had not been a Manson Girl? The crimes committed by the Mason Family were horrific, no one is debating that, but should she be judged as an equal of Charles Manson, or instead as a young woman who was completely under the sway of a charismatic and evil mad man?

That brings us to the other question, which is what type of society are we? Are a society that seeks retribution from criminals? Or a society that seeks to rehabilitate criminals? I have always been struck by that fact that the very people who claim they want to live in a Christian society are the same people who clamor for the death of murders, and seek a return to the chain gang and corporal punishment.

Would Leslie Van Houton still be in prison if she had not been a Manson Girl, and if the Manson case were not seared in the minds of Americans?